I was up in the mountains yesterday marking trees for spring collection and found some very nice, small, but old sage brush growing out of some big rocks. I wiggled this one and it broke off below the soil line very easily. The section that was left in the ground was very rotten. As you can see, it has some nice feeder roots left. I lost none of them to me knowledge and wrapped a wet towell around the roots so they would not dry out. I find very little to no advice on-line about planting or care of these. I'm just sure someone out there is an expert. Help appreciated.
SAGE BRUSH
- Thread starter August44
- Start date
mwar15
Omono
Colorado
Masterpiece
@Hartinez has collected a number of these.
I also had a sage brush for awhile before I gave it to a friend. It did very well for me.
I’d pot it up in pure pumice, water it pretty aggressively and give it quite a bit of sun. These things are very vigorous growers.
I’m not sure this is a very good time to collect them, though.
Sagebrush
Mame
I've had limited success with trying to dig very small ones and get them to live. Best success has been late fall/early winter and planting them back into my yard for landscape. They grow all over the yard but dont adjust to pots very well. Your specimens are really nice. Trunks are beautiful. What species or subspecies are they?
Thanks for comments. I agree on collecting this time of year but I was fooling with it lifting up the trunk from the rock it was laying on to see how embedded it was and the rotten part of the trunk broke off so I brought it home. Do you think later in the fall would be better or spring? Always unsure about high up on the Mt in the spring because of snow.
Colorado
Masterpiece
I have not collected any sage myself but my gut feeling is that springtime right when the snow melts is going to be the best bet. I’m going to dig one or two monsters next spring which I scouted previously when there was no snow.
Don't know species. Will check somewhere and find out if I can. Thanks for comments.
vp999
Masterpiece
When I first got into bonsai I bought one one Ebay and didn't even if it was alive for dead for months because they look the same lol.
I_I_am_not_a_cat
Yamadori
Hi August, how did your sagebrush fare? I recently found myself in a similar position of inadvertently getting one with a little bit of feeder roots while digging a different tree. It has been in a pot for a couple of weeks and so far seems to be fine. Curious if yours survived.
Thanks for asking. There were very few live roots when I collected it and no it did not survive even though i had it in good soil and kept it in water. What was alive stayed alive for about 4 months and then said good-by. I really liked the structure of the one I collected and I will make a small cement slab with a hole the size of the trunk in it and use it for a display. I will try again this next spring to collect another one. There are quite a few old, small, nice sage up where I collected this one. Stay tuned.
Sorry for being so long to get back to you on this question. I find that the only sage in Oregon is Mint sage so that must be what it is. I will try again in the spring.
Calnicky
Mame
Sagebrush is NOT sage. Sage = Salvia. Sagebrush = Artemesia tridentata.
Well just wow, and thanks for the clarification. I have been rambling along calling them either one thinking they were the same thing. Lesson learned.
Hartinez
Masterpiece
Within that. There are more than just one variety of Artemisia.
Oh that's nice. Now I have to figure which one we have over here. Thanks for letting us know Danny. I'll be on the look to ID. I need to know what I am collecting and it will be interesting for sure.
I tried to find out which Sagebrush I have out here. Danny's correct as there are a lot of different ones. I have come to the conclusion that the one we have around here is "Big sagebrush in the family "Asteraceae" and labeled Artemisia tridentata". Some of these around here are 5-7' tall and others up high are old and only 10" tall. Calnicky pls let me know if this is correct. Thank you.
